The United Kingdom on Tuesday suspended its free-trade agreement negotiations with Israel over the growing Gaza crisis, and after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer expressed disgust at newly expanded Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip, also as famine threats at least 500,000 Palestinians.

Starmer described that he and his French and Canadian counterparts are “horrified” by the Netanyahu government’s escalation in Gaza. This also comes as international headlines and warnings grow more dire. For example Al Jazeera has the following new headline: “Starving Palestinians resort to eating animal feed, flour mixed with sand”.

“We repeat our demand for a ceasefire as the only way to free the hostages, we repeat our opposition to settlements in the West Bank, and we repeat our demand to massively scale up humanitarian assistance into Gaza,” Starmer told parliament.

A Monday joint statement by the UK, France and Canada had threatened sanctions on Israel. Britain further did slap targeted sanctions on Israeli settler groups and individuals. 

Later on Tuesday, Foreign Secretary David Lammy voiced agreement with Starmer, saying that Israel’s actions are “morally wrong” and “unjustifiable.” He also said of the fresh sanctions, “I have seen for myself the consequences of settler violence. The fear of its victims. The impunity of its perpetrators.”

In announcing the pause in free-trade agreement negotiations, Lammy further revealed that the Israeli ambassador had been summoned. Britain is reportedly demanding the full resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip.

Responding to shadow foreign secretary Priti Patel, Lammy told parliament:

I think the whole house should be able to utterly condemn the Israeli government’s denial of food to hungry children. It is wrong. It’s appalling.

Opposing the expansion of a war that has killed thousands of children is not rewarding Hamas. Opposing the displacement of 100,000s of civilians is not rewarding Hamas. On this side of the house, we are crystal clear that what is happening is morally wrong, unjustifiable, and it needs to stop.

Starting Friday the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced an expanded mobilization of troops for operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’. Some two million Palestinians are expected to be forced into a “humanitarian zone” while most of the enclave is destroyed and flattened.

The policy somewhat contradicts Trump’s main messaging during last week’s Gulf tour, wherein he emphasized peace through deal-making, and not ‘chaos’ in the war-torn Middle East. 

This is probably the most pressure Israel has come under from its Western allies since Oct.7, 2023. As we previously reported, even Vice President JD Vance abruptly canceled a planned trip to Israel following the Netanyahu government’s declaration that it would ramp up operations to conquer all of Gaza.

Meanwhile the domestic policy fight within Israel has been ramping up too…

Yair Golan, an IDF major general and leader of Israel’s Democrats Party, said Monday that Israel is killing babies as a hobby:

“A sane country does not wage war against civilians, does not kill babies for a hobby, and does not set goals involving the expulsion of populations.” pic.twitter.com/NofvIAdNW9

— Dave DeCamp (@DecampDave) May 20, 2025

Axios had written that “The US official said Vance made the decision because he didn’t want his trip to suggest the Trump administration endorsed the Israeli decision to launch a massive operation at a time when the U.S. is pushing for a ceasefire and hostage deal.” 

Neither the US nor UK have every fully cut funding or arms transfers to Israel for any reason, and are unlikely to ever escalate to that point, no matter how tense relations become.

When Elon Musk joined the Trump administration with the goal of eliminating waste, fraud and abuse through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he set a lofty $2 trillion goal.

Now, four months later, DOGE has cut roughly $170 billion – a figure much lower than projected – in no small part due to activist judges and political pushback which have stopped the Trump administration from eliminating wide swaths of government bloat.

On Tuesday, Musk said it was up to Congress to make it happen. 

“The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice,” Musk said while speaking at an economic forum in Qatar.

“We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can, we can advise, and the progress we’ve made thus far, I think, is incredible,” Musk continued. “Doge team has done incredible work, but the magnitude of the savings is proportionate to the support we get from Congress and from the executive branch of the government in general. So we’re not the dictators we all the advisors. But thus far, for advisors. We’ve been to the George team, to their credit, has made incredible progress.” 

🚨 Elon Musk on DOGE:

“The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice. We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can, we can advise, and the progress we’ve… pic.twitter.com/9RrK2rCxK2

— DogeDesigner (@cb_doge) May 20, 2025

h/t @DogeDesigner

As we noted in February, it will be Congress that decides the endgame…

You cut enough spending – even if it’s all grift and fraud – you eventually get a recession, guaranteed.

That’s all Congress is waiting for cause then they use the “emergency” to vote through a far greater spending package (“will someone please think of all the unemployed”) one which eclipses all of DOGE’s spending cuts.

What Musk is doing in trying to streamline the govt is admirable but ultimately it will be Congress that decides the endgame. 

And there things are as status quo as always.

‘Unless I die’

In a humorous exchange, Musk said that he’s still committed to being Tesla CEO in five years’ time – unless he’s dead.

A moderator asked: “Do you see yourself and are you committed to still being the chief executive of Tesla in five years’ time?”

Musk responded: “Yes.”

The moderator pushed further: “No doubt about that at all?”

Musk added, chuckling: “I can’t be still here if I’m dead.”

Authored by Stacy Robinson via The Epoch Times,

U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on May 19 blocked President Donald Trump’s administration from restructuring the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), replacing its leadership, and assuming control of its office building.

“These unilateral actions were taken without asking Congress to cease or reprogram appropriations or by recommending that Congress enact a new law to dissolve or reduce the institute or transfer its tasks to another entity,” Howell stated in her written opinion.

USIP was established by Congress in 1984 as an “independent nonprofit corporation,” which receives federal and private funding to promote peace through education and diplomacy.

The matter began with a Feb. 19 Trump executive order declaring USIP “unnecessary,” and calling for the organization’s activities to “be eliminated to the maximum extent consistent with applicable law.”

Its board of directors is made up of 13 members: Ten are acting members, appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The other three are “ex officio” members, meaning they hold their seats because of their placement in the federal government.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Vice Admiral Peter A. Garvin, president of the National Defense University, hold these “ex officio” seats.

On March 14, Trent Morse of the Presidential Personnel Office fired USIP’s acting board members by email.

That same day, its president, George Moose, was fired by the ex officio members and replaced with Kenneth Jackson, an official from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) took control of USIP’s headquarters on March 17.

On March 18, in the middle of this shake-up, USIP and several of its fired board members sued the government, naming Trump, Jackson, Hegseth, and Rubio as co-defendants.

Howell initially declined to block the administration’s moves on March 19, while the case was pending before the court, because she felt the plaintiffs’ claims would not succeed on the merits.

The board members and USIP president Moose protested against the firings and resisted the takeover of its Washington headquarters, but were unsuccessful.

The administration eventually fired all but a handful of USIP’s staff, cancelled all of its programs.

It transferred control of USIP’s headquarters to the General Services Administration and leased its office space to the Department of Labor.

In her ruling, Howell sought to define USIP’s role in the federal government.

The plaintiffs had argued that USIP is a fully independent entity, and not part of the government, or at the very least, not part of the executive branch.

Its statutes say the board members can only be removed by the president: “In consultation with the board, for conviction of a felony, malfeasance in office, persistent neglect of duties, or inability to discharge duties.”

A board member may also be removed by a vote of eight other board members, or with a majority vote from members of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Education and Labor, and the Senate Committees on Foreign Relations and Labor and Human Resources.

The Trump administration had argued that it was part of the executive branch, since it performed diplomatic functions.

Since it is part of the executive branch, federal attorney Brian Hudak argued, Trump was entitled to fire its board despite the statutory limitations.

Judge Howell took a middle-of-the-road view and said that USIP is part of the federal government, but not strictly part of the executive branch.

“Instead, USIP supports both the executive and legislative branches as an independent think tank that carries out its own international peace research, education and training, and information services,” she stated.

“Defendants’ subsequent actions that flowed from the improper removal of USIP’s leadership in March 2025 are thus also unlawful,” including the termination of its grant programs and the firing of its staff.

Howell ordered the fired board members and president Moose to be reinstated and may not be fired, except in accordance with USIP’s statutes.

She also declared the transfer of USIP’s headquarters illegal and has blocked the government from “trespassing” on those headquarters or maintaining control of its computer systems.

The FBI on Sunday upped the reward for information leading to the arrests of seven at-large inmates who escaped a New Orleans jail.

Ten inmates escaped from the Orleans Parish Justice Center on May 16 – breaching a wall behind a toilet and fleeing across an interstate highway at 1 a.m. Three of them, Kendell Myles, Robert Moody, and Dkenan Dennis, were captured, while the remaining seven are still at large.

According to FBI special agent Jonathan Trapp, the FBI has doubled the award from $5,000 per inmate to $10,000 for their whereabouts – noting that the escaped inmates are likely to be receiving assistance from members of the public in order to evade arrest.

The FBI’s award stacks with a $5,000 reward per inmate offered by the ATF, and $2,000 per inmate offered by Crimestoppers.

As the Epoch Times notes further, during the press conference, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said that he had directed the Department of Corrections (DOC) to audit the Orleans Correctional Facility for compliance with “basic jail guidelines” and to remove all DOC inmates currently held in that facility.

Landry also said that he would issue an executive order directing the state inspector general to obtain an inventory from the sheriff on all pretrial detainees and those awaiting sentences.

The governor specifically cited the case of Derrick Groves, one of the escaped inmates, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges in October 2024 and was awaiting sentencing.

Landry said that Groves wouldn’t have been able to escape from the New Orleans jail had he already been sentenced by the court system.

“This massive jailbreak, which my statistics tell me could be the largest jailbreak in the history of the state, should never have happened. The public deserves to know who, what, and how this happened,” he said.

Landry added that Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill’s office will lead the investigation into the incident.

Murrill stated on social media platform X that her office will focus on recovering the escapees, maintaining public safety, and ensuring security and stability at the facility.

Louisiana State Police said in a May 17 update that Myles, who had been charged with attempted second-degree murder, was caught shortly after the breakout on May 16, and two more were captured later that day with the help of tips from the public.

All three have been moved to a secure facility, with one requiring a spit hood during transport after exhibiting hostile behavior, according to Louisiana State Police.

Tom Ozimek contributed to this report.

Authored by Jarrett Stepman via The Daily Signal,

Biden’s Presidency Is a Scandal of Historic Proportions

The “presidency” of Joe Biden is one of the greatest scandals in American history. The legacy media is only now covering the mental incapacity of a president who apparently left the entire ship of state to the unaccountable bureaucracy.

On Friday, Axios released Friday night news dump audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur.

Exclusive: Axios obtained the audio of Robert Hur’s 2023 interviews of Biden which show repeated mental lapses as he struggles to remember words & dates amid long, uncomfortable pauses.
Biden WH didn’t release it last year. Listen below.
w/ @MarcACaputo https://t.co/VJr2c9m3bh pic.twitter.com/Xoa0rQMtG9

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) May 16, 2025

If you heard the tape and haven’t been in a coma for the past four years, then nothing here is truly surprising. The former president sounded senile and evasive when answering questions about his handling of top secret documents.

Some of my colleagues went through the full tapes and found that Biden “forgot the names of President Barack Obama’s former secretary of defense and comedian Jay Leno; referred to Africa as a country, not a continent; and was unaware he had in his possession a notebook with war advice in it for Obama during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur and investigators in October 2023.”

Biden certainly did not sound like someone who could be trusted to make large-scale national decisions or even small-scale personal ones.

This is entirely unsurprising unless you are a left-leaning corporate media journalist on the political beat. 

If you are, then I’m sure that the reports coming out about Biden in office are jaw-dropping, gob-smacking revelations to you.

The media elite are shocked, shocked to discover that Biden may have been unfit for office.

The release of these tapes was followed by a Sunday afternoon reveal that Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.

The cancer diagnosis is certainly a terrible thing. But the idea that this should end the story about what happened the last four years is a farce. It couldn’t be clearer now that due to mental and physical ailments, Biden was a diminished man from the moment he assumed the president’s office.

Despite some of the aforementioned elite journalists calling for a lid to be put on conversations about Biden’s presidency due to his health, the reality is the cancer diagnosis only raises more unsettling questions. Is this really a new diagnosis? Did Biden’s doctors really somehow miss the signs of treatable cancer?

And that makes this situation entirely unprecedented.

Yes, President Woodrow Wilson was at one point incapacitated during his final term in office, but that was at the tail end of his presidency. Wilson suffered a series of strokes after his highly energetic campaign to convince Americans to join the League of Nations. His wife and even some members of the media tried to cover it up, but ultimately the Democratic Party pulled the plug on his extremely brief flirtation with running for a third term.

There was no widespread attempt to fool the American people and ensure another term for an “almost catatonic” president, as one witness at George Clooney’s June fundraiser for Biden described the candidate.

This situation with Biden was much, much worse, the cover-up far more extensive, and the consequences were far more potentially dire in the age of instant communication and weapons capable of quickly destroying all of human civilization.

How shall we think of those years in which multiple crises developed around the globe, Americans were mass deprived of employment due to government-forced vaccinations, states were browbeaten to allow children to get life-altering hormones, and an ultimately victorious presidential candidate was nearly jailed?

I’ve tried to think of some apt historical comparisons.

President John Tyler was known to some of his more cantankerous critics as “his accidency,” due to being the first vice president to assume the president’s office after the death of the commander in chief. The attitude was that nobody actually elected him to become president, and in the early days of the republic the Constitution was a bit murky about whether he could just assume office or a new election must be held.

Regardless of the nickname, Tyler became an aggressive, active commander in chief—somewhat to the chagrin of many in his party.

But Biden was in some way the mirror opposite. Despite being elected in a highly contested election, he seems to have never really assumed his responsibilities. Biden’s lethargy was only matched by his lack of transparency.

The better word for Biden would be “his irrelevancy.”

While the 46th president’s handlers, most likely at the behest of former President Barack Obama, led him around in an extended real-world version of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” the federal apparatus operated on its own.

This was rule by “experts,” or really rule by the managerial class that re-created the old spoils system but made it totally unaccountable to the American people.

Decisions were carried out by vast, interlocking agencies at the behest of their Democratic Party allies whom they serve.

This was the first fully deep-state presidency.

How is this not the most plausible answer to everything we have seen? https://t.co/7wyfPSFDMB

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) May 20, 2025

Biden was awarded by the Democratic Party with the nominal career-capping title as president, but the functions and even the decisions demanded of his office were clearly distributed to his subordinates and the federal leviathan.

The result was a complete disaster.

Americans rightly lost faith in their leaders and the elite institutions attached to this corrupted apparatus. U.S. foreign policy was at best strategically adrift. Our enemies around the globe went on the march. The people feared the government more than the government feared them.

The upshot of these calamities is that we were delivered a national wake-up call at a time of crisis. A political counterrevolution is taking place that may have never happened had its depth not been revealed at least in part by the media’s cover-up of Biden’s obvious infirmity.  

But even though the first 100-plus days of President Donald Trump couldn’t be more different than the four years of his predecessor, we can’t forget how bad things got, how much the legacy media covered for a senile president’s obvious incapacity, and how deeply threatening the permanent bureaucratic state is to American liberty.

*  *  *

Grow your own food with HEIRLOOM SEEDS (39 varieties – 4,500 seeds) from ZH Store!  Free shipping in the USA.

Shares of European renewable energy companies surged Tuesday after New York Governor Kathy Hochul announced that, following weeks of negotiations with President Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the month-long stop-work order on the $5 billion Empire Wind project off the state’s coast has been lifted. Reuters reported that the move could pave the way for the Trump administration to revisit plans for expanding natural gas pipelines in New York.

“After countless conversations with Equinor and White House officials, bringing labor and business to the table to emphasize the importance of this project, I’m pleased that President Trump and Secretary Burgum have agreed to lift the stop work order and allow this project to move forward,” Democratic Gov. Hochul wrote in a statement. 

She continued, “Now, Equinor will resume the construction of this fully permitted project that had already received the necessary federal approvals. I also reaffirmed that New York will work with the Administration and private entities on new energy projects that meet the legal requirements under New York law. To ensure reliability and affordability for consumers, we will be working earnestly to deliver on these objectives.” 

News of Equinor’s Empire Wind project’s resumption alleviated uncertainties for investors: Denmark’s Orsted AS jumped 16%, the most in three years, and Vestas Wind Systems increased 6.5% in Copenhagen. Equinor rose 1.5%. 

Jefferies analyst Ahmed Farman said the Empire Wind project is a positive read-across for Orsted. He said the stop-work order had “significantly raised market concerns” for Orsted’s Revolution Wind and Sunrise Wind projects. The analyst reiterated a “Hold” rating on the stock.

The resumption “shows it is possible and useful to discuss questions with the Trump administration,” Norway’s Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg told Bloomberg via a telephone interview. 

Morgan Stanley analyst Robert Pulleyn said today’s news will relieve Orsted shares “on the increased likelihood these projects are delivered.”

Pulleyn said the lack of a “clear rationale” for the halt order on Equinor’s Empire Wind project had heightened investor uncertainty surrounding Orsted’s two U.S. projects currently under construction. He reiterated an Equal-weight rating on Orsted. 

As measured by the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF (ICLN), the broader clean tech sector has retraced to levels last seen before the Covid pandemic. The space was propped up with cheap money from the Federal Reserve and the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is bringing back common-sense energy policies that prioritize reliable fossil fuel power generation, such as natural gas and coal. The world learned that solar and wind create instabilities, especially several weeks ago when Spain achieved a net-zero death.

New customs data from China shows that smartphone shipments to the U.S. collapsed 72% in April to below $700 million—the lowest level since 2011. The plunge coincided with the peak of the U.S.-China trade war, as the Trump administration imposed up to 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, disrupting tech supply chains. However, those levies have since been significantly scaled back to 30% as of May.

Using data from China’s General Administration of Customs, Bloomberg reported that the 72% plunge in smartphone shipments to the U.S. far outpaced the 21% decline in overall exports to the U.S.

China’s export data showed that handsets and laptops suffered the largest shipping declines in April.

April marked the peak of the trade war, with President Trump imposing tariffs of up to 145% on Chinese goods and Beijing retaliating with 125% tariffs on U.S. products. By mid-May, trade tensions had eased, with U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods reduced to 30% and China’s tariffs on U.S. goods lowered to 10%.

However, the so-called “breakthrough” trade deal between the U.S. and China last week has Goldman analyst Philip Sun forecasting a surge in imports for U.S. ports. This has abruptly reversed the “empty ports” and “empty shelves” narratives; now, U.S. importers expect to pull forward.

Goldman’s Sun explained: “China’s exports will be RED HOT in the next 90 days. Frontrunning would be the keyword.”

Meanwhile, Apple accelerated a shift of iPhone production to India in anticipation of the trade war. 

Last week, President Trump, on his Gulf States tour, publicly called out Apple CEO Tim Cook for the massive expansion of iPhone production in India. Trump said after his conversation about ‘Made in America’, the CEO would be “upping their production in the United States.” 

Wedbush Securities recently estimated that a fully American-made iPhone could cost as much as $3,500, compared to the current average price of around $1,000. There are reports the next model could see the first price hike since the 2017 debut of the iPhone X.

Next lineup of iPhone…

 . . . 

Via  Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com,

Legendary financial and geopolitical cycle analyst Martin Armstrong is back with an update on his big turn toward war in Ukraine with Russia.  

Two weeks ago on USAW, Armstrong predicted, “After May 15, war is turning up (in Ukraine) and it will be turning up into 2026.”  

That prediction paid off to the exact day as peace talks between Russia and Ukraine ended on May 15 after just two hours, and neither side agreed to meet again.  

War is already here, and there is no stopping it with peace talks.  Armstrong says, “Putin knows and understands this is not a just a war with Ukraine, this is a war with NATO...”

“If Putin agrees to a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine, what’s that going to do?  Absolutely nothing.  

You have every European country reinstituting drafts.  In Germany, even people 60 years old have been told to report.  Poland has ordered every able-bodied man to show up for military training.  They want war.  Their economy is collapsing.  You hear about this de-dollarization, and it’s not happening.  The capitalization of just the New York Stock Exchange is worth more than all of Europe combined.  That’s just the New York Stock Exchange…

You’ve got Macron in France, they call him the ‘Petite Napolean.’. . . Without war, Europe is going to collapse.  It’s in a sovereign debt crisis . . . They have done everything against the economy.”

Armstong thinks Russia will finish off Ukraine sometime in 2027 and Europe a year or two after that.  And, Yes, Armstrong still thinks Ukraine will disappear from the map.

Armstrong urged his contacts in Washington to “Get the hell out of NATO.”  It seems some in the US government are considering this warning as this headline breaks today: “US to Begin European Troop Withdrawal Talks, NATO Ambassador Says.”  Armstrong says, 

“I have been told by some very influential people on Capitol Hill ‘you’re right, we agree.’  That’s what I have been told. . . . I have been complaining about this for months, and my view is Europe is committing suicide, and let’s not be part of it this time.”

Is President Trump getting this message?  Armstrong says, “Yes, I believe so. . . . Trump also said a peace deal does not seem likely, the hatred is too great on both sides.”

The neocons back home also want war with Russia and have wanted it for a very long time.  Trump is either going to make peace or walk away and not participate.  Maybe this is why former FBI Director James Comey put out his not-so-cryptic call to assassinate President Trump with his “86 47” now deleted Instagram post.  Comey was the man who held Armstrong in prison illegally for contempt for 7 years. 

Armstrong says, “Comey has always been part of it.  Just for the record, he was the US Attorney in New York.  He’s the one who kept me in contempt until the Supreme Court said what the hell is going on?  Then, they had to release me.”

How did Armstrong land in jail?  

Armstrong says, “They asked me to put in 10 billion dollars . . . to take over Russia, and I refused…”

”  It was Comey that was the US Attorney for New York, and he kept me in civil contempt, which has a maximum sentence of 18 months, and he kept me in for 7 years.  

He kept rolling it and rolling it and rolling it. . . . I was told if I put in $10 billion, I would get $100 billion back.  

They intended to have all the assets of Russia going through the trading desk of New York.  All the oil, gold, diamonds, platinum, you name it, they would have it all.  And I said, no, I’m out.  I am not into regime change.”

Fast forward to today, and the powers in Europe still think they can take Russia and steal their assets to fix the extreme financial problems in Europe.  

Pensions, banks and bonds are in deep financial trouble in Europe.  

Stealing from Russia and gaining control of $75 trillion in natural resources is why they want and need war.  Armstrong says, 

“They went to negative interest rates in 2014.  I warned them.  I said listen; you are out of your minds.  

You are syphoning money out of the bank reserves and pension finds.  It’s a basket case.  It really is.  They have no appreciable economy. . . it’s shrinking, the number of actual businesses has shrunk in Germany.  (Germany is 25% of the EU economy.)  This is why they need war.”

Armstrong says Europe is going to lose and lose badly in a war with Russia.  

Armstrong says if Trump gets out of NATO, the US will thrive and do much better financially than Europe.  

Let’s all hope President Trump gets us out of NATO before it’s too late.

There is much more in the 60-minute interview.

Join Greg Hunter of USAWatchdog.com as he goes One-on-One with Martin Armstrong as he gives his analysis on war, default, depression and unpayable debt that will make a huge mess for the world for 5.17.25.

To Donate to USAWatchdog.com click here

There is free information, analysis and articles on ArmstrongEconomics.com.

In an absolute shocker that you’ll never believe (unless you read ZeroHedge) – Klarna, the Swedish financial technology firm known for its “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) offerings, reported a sharp increase in losses for the first quarter, driven by a rise in consumer defaults and economic unease in the United States.

The company posted a net loss of $99 million for the three months ending in March, more than double its $47 million loss during the same period a year earlier. The deterioration comes amid a rise in customer credit losses, which climbed 17 percent year-on-year to $136 million, underscoring mounting concerns about the financial health of U.S. borrowers.

Klarna’s business model – providing interest-free installment loans for retail purchases – has grown rapidly in recent years, especially in the United States, where the company has partnered with major retailers such as Walmart, eBay and DoorDash. But the surge in unpaid loans and shifting macroeconomic conditions have intensified scrutiny of the company’s exposure to economic headwinds, according to the Financial Times.

The results also follow Klarna’s decision to halt its long-anticipated initial public offering in New York, after recent tariff announcements from President Donald Trump roiled markets. The administration’s trade policy has heightened inflation expectations and dampened consumer sentiment, with one widely watched confidence index falling to its second-lowest level on record last week.

Despite the growing defaults, Klarna emphasized the short-term nature of its loan book, noting that 83 percent of its balances refresh within three months. The company said in a statement that it’s “closely monitoring changes in the macroeconomic environment,” and “remains well-positioned to adapt swiftly if required.”

Klarna’s credit loss rate as a share of total payment volume remains relatively modest at 0.54 percent, a slight uptick from 0.51 percent a year earlier.

Revenues for the quarter rose 13 percent to $701 million, as the platform reached 99 million active users. The company has leaned heavily on artificial intelligence to streamline operations, delivering Monday’s earnings through an AI-generated avatar of its chief executive.

Klarna has also pursued aggressive cost-cutting, reducing its headcount by 39 percent over the past two years. Customer service expenses declined 12 percent year-on-year in the latest quarter. At the same time, the company is grappling with a 15 percent rise in funding costs, now totaling $130 million.

Last month we noted that Americans are increasingly tapping Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) financing to pay for daily essentials — even groceries — according to a Lending Tree survey, in which  41% of those polled say they were late on payments over the past year, which is up from 34% in last year’s survey. About three-quarters of the late-payers say they were late by no more than “a week or so.” However, where that and other numbers are concerned, it’s important to note that these stats are based on survey responses — not the hard data of their BNPL providers. Given human nature, it’s reasonable to think respondents would understate subpar behavior. 

The top two categories of BNPL purchases are clothing, shoes and accessories (41% of BNPL users) followed by technology devices (39%). However, there’s been a surge in people who’ve used BNPL for groceries — 25% versus 14% last year.  A whopping one-third of Gen Z BNPL-tappers say they’ve used the financing for groceries. Similarly, 16% of users have tapped BNPL for food delivery or takeout.

Other findings:

• Nearly half of the respondents have used a BNPL loan, with 11% saying they’ve used them 6 or more times. 23% have had three or more of them running simultaneously.  
• 53% of men have used BNPL, versus 46% of female respondents. 
• 64% of Gen Zers (age 18 to 28) have used BNPL, compared to 29% of Boomers (61 to 79)

Via Remix news,

Due to France’s drug trafficking crisis, a large majority of French are in favor of the army being deployed into disadvantaged neighborhoods in problematic neighborhoods in France, including 80 percent of women.

According to a CSA poll conducted for CNews, Europe 1 and JDD, 76 percent of French people overall want the army called in to battle drug trafficking in “disadvantaged neighborhoods.”

In fact, women are more supportive of troops being deployed than men, with 80 percent of women saying yes to the question: “Should the army be called in to combat drug trafficking in troubled neighborhoods?” In turn, only 72 percent of men supported such an action.

🇫🇷 Marseilles. France

The French port city is now a major narcotics hub for Europe.

Last year, a 15-year-old was stabbed 50 times and burned alive in the drug violence as murders hit record highs.

This is the “New France.” pic.twitter.com/2ueIZ5BKH4

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 4, 2025

This may have to do with the fact that French women feel increasingly unsafe in their own country. As Remix News has reported, France has seen an incredible 86 percent increase in sexual violence in the last 10 years, with mass immigration fueling this trend.

🇫🇷 Young French woman stalked by Black male

She says that maybe he’ll leave in a moment, but quickly realizes he’s still pacing right behind her.

Many women immediately start livestreaming when they’re being stalked now, so there will be evidence if something happens. pic.twitter.com/PdGWzKPfKF

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) April 8, 2025

🇫🇷👩‍🦰 “Do you want to f**k me?”

This French woman can’t even enjoy a morning on the beach without being sexually harassed.

This migrant man was arrested shortly after this incident for choking and assaulting another woman. pic.twitter.com/4PONWl4PR9

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 12, 2024

🇫🇷🚨 An African migrant confessed to French police that he wanted to “slit the throats of White women.”

The suspect stabbed a woman in the back in Bordeaux while she was out jogging. He also raped another woman on the same day.

In 2023, he strangled another woman. pic.twitter.com/11W3APiILm

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) November 14, 2024

French women have shown themselves to be more restrictive of immigration in past surveys as well, which also runs counter to polling in most other Western European countries. The polling shows 64 percent of French want more restrictions on non-EU immigration, with more women favoring restriction than men.

Although the troops on the streets in French cities would be dramatic, 66 percent were in favor of such a move two years ago when they were last surveyed, and 33 percent were against it. Apparently, the idea has only grown in popularity since then. Now, only 23 percent are against French troops being deployed.

In this latest CSA poll, opinions on the issue of sending in troops did not differ much by age either. For example, 70 percent of French people under 35 want the army to be sent in, which includes 73 percent of those aged 18 to 24 and 68 percent of those 25 to 34.

In this regard, the French youth also buck the trends seen in other Western European countries, with a desire for law and order, even if it is through military force. The youth, in turn, voted for Marine Le Pen in higher numbers than older voters (65+) during the last election national election.

However, older voters are even more in favor of military force. Among those 35 to 49 and those 50 to 64, 80 percent support the military being called in. The 50-and-over cohort supports such a move at a rate of 78 percent.

National Rally voters are the most supportive, with 90 percent in favor, however, even supporters of Macron’s party, Renaissance, want the military deployed at 81 percent. For left-wing voters, a majority still supports such a move, at 54 percent. The poll finds that 67 percent of Socialist voters want the army deployed, however, the real shocker is that 52 percent of the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) also want the army deployed to these neighborhoods.

In fact, these “disadvantaged” neighborhoods are almost universally filled with migrants from Africa and the Middle East.

Donald Trump has made similar claims in the past, such as calling troops into major American cities to deal with the crime crisis. Left-wing voters in the U.S. are less receptive to the idea. However, during the 2020 George Floyd riots, a slim majority of Americans supported calling in the troops to control mass rioting going on in cities.

The French CSA poll was conducted a few days after a German Youtuber conducted a “ghetto tour” in the city of Nimes. He showed himself in drug-dealing hotspots, with the video going viral, receiving millions of views. The drug dealers displayed weapons and even built a stand for customers featuring drinks and food, with the police nowhere to be seen.

The video has been used to highlight the complete breakdown in law and order in the French republic and is putting pressure on the government to take action — or at least claim they are taking action.

Nîmes (30) : les dealers du Mas de Mingue font découvrir leur quartier à un youtubeur allemand. pic.twitter.com/TaqebgwOeq

— Fdesouche.com est une revue de presse (@F_Desouche) May 12, 2025

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau is attempting to show strength in the face of growing drug gangs, saying it is his top priority. However, it appears the French want far more, including troops on the streets.

🇫🇷🚨 BREAKING: Three prison officers have been shot dead in France after a van transporting inmate Mohamed A. was ambushed at the Incarville tollbooth by several heavily armed men who opened fire.

The detainee escaped and fled with the men. He was known to the courts for drug… pic.twitter.com/3pLv48EYqa

— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) May 14, 2024

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